Other Side Drive: Thursday

Pop Rocks

By: Kelsey Nichols

Episode 7

Pop Rocks-EP7

Iggy and The Stooges will be playing the House of Vans Showcase at SXSW March 13th. Others playing at the showcase include: Japandroids and Ghostface Killah. Iggy and The Stooges have not played at SXSW since 2007.

More in SXSW day party news, Equal Vision Records have announced details about their showcase at House of Blues on March 15. The Deer Hunter is headlining the show. Other performers include: Ed Tullett and Set It Off.

Slumberland Records is returning to SXSW to showcase some of its artists on March 13. Artists to perform include Gold-Bears, Kids on a Crime Spree and Girls Names.

More in SXSW news, The Artery Foundation have announced that their SXSW Showdown will be headlined by Motionless In White on March 15. Performers include Jonny Craig, Chelsea Grin and Horseneck.

A few bands have recently split up.

Side project of Mx Px, Arthur, has broken up after having played together for 10 years.

We Were Skeletons also have announced that their band is breaking up. The band’s final shows will be in May.

Aficionado has announced their split. The group has been together for nearly nine years. Vocalist Nick Warchol announced that some of the group members will possibly be putting together a new music project sometime in the future.

In other news,

Prince borrowed Captain Kirk Douglas’s 1961 Epiphone Crestwood while he played his new song “Screwdriver” on Jimmy Fallon March 1. The singer also sang classic hit “Bambi.” During the performance Prince dropped the microphone before walking off the stage and threw the guitar in the air and let it fall to the ground. Prince reportedly refused to sign Douglas’ guitar after throwing it on the ground.

Traindodge has recently finished their sixth full length album titled Supernatural Disasters. The album is expected to release sometime in either April or May.

Psychedelic pop group MGMT announced their tour dates. The group’s tour will be April until July.

Episode 8

Pop Rocks-EP8

SXSW was last week, March 8-17, and several well-known and up-and-coming artists took the stage all around Austin.

Well-known artists such as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Green Day, Fitz and the Tantrums, Walk off the Earth and Paramore excited many fans by performing during SXSW this year. Several of the artists performed many times during the week, to give fans the chance to come see them.

Perhaps the largest and most exciting show during SXSW was the secret show that took place on Saturday night, March 16. The highly anticipated show was hosted by Myspace and Justin Timberlake performed. The singer’s album titled 20/20 Experience released this week.

Prince performed during SXSW as well, at La Zona Rosa on Saturday.

In other news:

Jay-Z, Frank Ocean, Justin Timberlake and Kendrick Lamar will be travelling with Yahoo during the summer according to Billboard. Yahoo! Is launching a festival titled Yahoo on the Road. Texas stops include Houston and Dallas in May.

Jay-Z is also contributing a lot to the highly awaited movie The Great Gatsby. Jay-Z will not only be contributing original music for the film, he will also be executive producer of the soundtrack.

Animal Collective has announced that they are postponing shows through March. Shows are scheduled to pick back up in May.

Daft Punk’s next full-length album is possibly on its way to be released. Sony Records has recently registered 13 untitled tracks through a British organization that licenses recorded music.

There is more bad news for people who had tickets to Morrissey’s tour. He will not be rescheduling the North American show dates anymore due to the singer’s ongoing health problems.